The Brookhaven leader., 1887-08-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Heavenly Existence Not One
of Idleness.
Occupations ne Many and Varied in ms
Celestial World as Upon the Earth
"A Beautiful Word Picture
of the Future.


the fourth month in the fifth day Of the month
as was among the captives by the river o
Chebar, that the Heavens were opened. -Eze
ktsl L, 1.
Ezekiel, with others, had been ex
patriated, and while in foreign slavery
was standing on the banks of the roya
canal which be and other serfs had beer
condemned to dig by the order OF Nebu.
chadnezzar-this royal canal. in the text
called the river Of Chehar; the illustrious
exile had visions Of Heaven. Indeed, it il
almost always so that the brightest visions
of Heaven come not to those who are on
mountain top Of prosperity, but TO some
John on desolate Patmos, OF to some Paul
In MameTtime dungeon, or to some Ezekiel
standing On the banks Of q ditch he had
been compelled TO dig-vea, to the weary,
TO the heart-hruken, TO those whom sorrow
has banishcd.
The text is very particular to give US the
exact time of the vision. 1t was in the
thirtieth wear, and in the fourth month,
and in the fifth day of the month. So you
have had visions of earth YOU shall
never forget. You remember the
year, You remember the month,
you remember the dav, you remember the
hour. Why NAV not we have some such
vision this morning, and it be in the sixth
month and in the fourth day Of the month.
The question is often silently asked,
though perhaps never audibiy propounded:
"What are our departed Christian friends
doing now:' The question is more easily
answ cred than YOU perhaps might suppose.
Though there has come no recent inteli.
gence from the heavenly city, and we seem
dependent upon the story of eighteen cen.
tEries ago, still l think we may from
strongest differences decide what are the
present occupations Of our transferred
kinsfolk.
After God has made nature he never
eradicate the chief characteristics Of its
temperament. You never knew man
phleEmatir Fl temperament to become
sanguins n temperament. You never
knew man >anguine in temperament to
become pLlaSmatic in temperament Con.
version plants new principles in the soul,
but Paul and John are just as different
from each other after conversion as thew
were different from each other before con.
version. II conversion does not eradicate
the prominent characteristics Of the tenn
permanent neither will death eradicate
thsm.
You have, then, only by a sum in sub
traction and a sum In addition to dec de
what are the cmployments Of your de-
parted friends in the better world You
are to subtract from them all earthly
grosSncss and add all earthly goodness,
and then you are TO come TO the conclusion
that they are doing how in Heaven what
in their best moments they did on earth,
The reason that 50 many people never start
Tor Heaven is because they could not stand
it if they got there if it should turn out to
be the rigid and formal place some people
photograph it,
We Ike 70 come l. church, but We
would not want t. stay here to next Christ.
mas. We likete hear the Hallelujah Chorus,
but we would not want 10 hear it all the
time for fifty centuries. II might be on
some great occasion it would he possibly
comfortable Ia wear a crown of gold
weighing several pounds, but it would be
an affiiction TO wear such q crown forever
In other words, we run the descriptions
Of Heaven into the ground while we make
that which was intended ar especial and
celebrative 70 be the exclusive employment
Of the Heaven. You might as well, If
asked to describe the habits Of American
society, describe Decoration Day or q
Fourth Of July, or an autumnal Thanksgiv-
ing, as though IL were all the time that
wav.
am not going to speculate in regard to
the future world, but l must, by inevitable
laws of inference and deduction and COM
mon sense, conclude that in Heaven wewill
be just as different from each other as we
are now different, and hence that there
will be at least a. many different employ
ments in the celestial world as there are
emplOEments here. Christ is to be the great
love, the great JOY. the great rapture, the
great worship of Heaven; but will that
abolish employment? No more than loves
on earth-paternal, filial, fraternal, con-
jugal lOve-abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, | remark that all those
of our departed Christian friends who On
earth found great Joy in the fine arts are
now luduiging their tastes in the same di-
rectIOn. On earth they had their gladdest
pleasures amid pictures and statuary, and
N the study Of the laws Of light and shade
and perspective. Have you any idea that
that atiiueuce Of faculty at death collapsed
and persisted: Why so, when there is
more for them TO look at, and they have
keener appreciation of the beautiful, and
they stand amid the very looms where the
sunsets and the rainbows and the spring
mornings are woven
Are yoH 50 obtuse a. ~ suppose that be.
cause the painter drops his easel and the
sculptor his chisel and the engraver his
knife, that, therefore, that taste, which he
was charging and intensifying for forty
or fifty years, is entirely obliterated?
These artists, or these friends of art, on
earth worked'in coarse material and with
tRperfect brain and with frail hand. Now
saey have carried their art into larger
liberties and into wider circumference.
They are at their old business vet, but
without the fatiaues, without the limita-
tionS, without the hndrances of the ter
restrial studio.
Do not, therefore, be melancholy among
the tapestries, the hric-a- brac, and the
embrOderies, and the water colOrs. and the
works of art which your departed friends
used 10 admire. Do not say. "a am sorry
they had to leave all these things" Rather
say: 81 am glad they have gone up to
higher artistic opportunity and apprecia-
ton" Our friends who found so much 10y
in the fine arts on earth are now luxuriat-
ing in Louvres and Luxem bourgs celestial.
] remark again, that all our departed
Christian friends who in this world were
paSsionately fond of music are still regal
ing that taste in the world celestial. The
Bible saws so much about the music of
Heaven that il can not all be fgurative.
The Bible over and over again speaks of
the songs Of Heaven. If Heaven had no
songs Of its own vast number of those of
earth would have been taken up by the
earthly emigrants. Surely the Christian
at death does not loose his memory. Then
there must be millions Of souls in Heaven